Bethlehem to weigh bid for Normanside land

The Bethlehem Town Board will meet Monday afternoon to discuss the future of the Normanside Golf Course and whether the town should bid on acquiring the shuttered club’s land.

The emergency meeting, which will be held behind closed doors and without public comment, was called last week by Town Supervisor Sam Messina after word broke that Bank of America would put the mortgage note for the club’s 269 acres up for auction.

The private club closed for good at the end of January, after declining membership and the poor economy caused financial difficulties it couldn’t overcome.

The fear now is that a developer will buy the land, used by town residents for activities such as sledding and skiing, for the construction of single-family homes.

“People in the community are concerned about what might happen,” said Mark Hennessey, a town board member.

The land would need to be rezoned before it would be developed. Still, residential builders are likely to be interested, because the bucolic property at the end of Salisbury Road is near the heart of Delmar and is a short commute to downtown Albany.

Monday’s board meeting of the town board is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. In an interview, Messina said if the town does decide to bid on the property, it’s unlikely that town officials will publicly discuss the move.

“It’s feasible that the town would decide to do that,” Messina said when asked about the possibility of a bid. “But you’re talking about a pretty significant amount of money at a time when most towns and taxpayers are concerned about expenses.”

45 Responses

That land is I believe not zoned for residential, and I have a really, really hard time believing the residents of the only street access to the club would ever allow a change for more houses/traffic. The restriction is why the asking price is so low for all that acreage.

Citizens of Bethlehem. We must stop any kind of development in that area. The Town must come up wit ha solution to keep the land unbuilt. We don’t need another development nor a shopping area in Delmar. We need open areas. Normanside must be kept as it is may be transformed in a public park.

Why does it have to be one or the other? The town doesn’t really have enough money to buy the land without going into long term debt which may threaten their bond rating. The town will also be taking on a huge expense to maintain the property in perpetuity.
Making it a town park is sure to increase traffic on the road so residents of the road may not be so keen on that option.
The town could buy the land, keep a portion for a park and sell off the rest for development. The houses would be even more valuable since they would be right next to the park land. The sale of part of the land would help ease the cost of the purchase and maintenance. Housing will also increase the town tax base, easing the tax burden for everyone.

This is a great chance for someone to get a golf course for cheap. Joe Bove might scoop this up and run it into the ground like he has done with Evergreen, better than building house on the site though.

As much as we’d like to think as residents we have that type of persuasion over the Town Board, the land can be rezoned. Highly concerned with the thought that the Town would want to purchase land that has revenue potential for our tax base. If owned by the Town it would lose that tax base revenue and potentialy come back as an expense to residents by a tax increase – not a good proposal for residents.

The government should not own a golf coarse, I have been opposed to Albanys Capital Hills since the beginning. BOA should sell it to a developer and then build half million dollar houses on it. Those of you in Delmar that don’t want it developed are the true “Delmarshians”

Given the financial pressures cities and towns are facing it wouldn’t surprise me if the town board with supervisory sanction made a motion to lift the residentai zoning restriction to increase its tax base.

Why not a partnership with the City of Albany to connect the municipal golf course with the Normanside land and make the acreage a multi-use venue like the Crossings in Colonie? Less expense for upkeep compared to residential and it would actually serve a public need for more open spaces. Imagine that.

Why does the Town of Bethlehem need another park? Parks fall under the Town services of Parks & Recreation, which would potentially mean more staff and resources to service this area as a Public property. We currently have several parks in addition to the Elm Ave Park currently, including the public course within Colonial Acres.

A town owned golf course/park would probably be the highest and best use of the property. The development cost on that parcel would be out of this world due to the topography and DEC stormwater runoff regulations, not to mention the extremely long planning process someone would have to go through. Remember Normansgate? It took in excess of 15 YEARS to get approved due to slope and clay soil issues. Any developer would have to have their head examined if they were to persue the developement of that parcel.

Don’t we have enough residential developments in the town of Bethlehem already? The great part of Delmar’s value is not only its convenience for commute to Albany and excellent schools, but its charming mature neighborhoods. I would hate to see Delmar go the ways of Glenmont and see tract after tract of Mcmansions, especially in that bucolic area surrounding Normanside CC. Why can’t the town join hands with a private enterpise and run the club as a semi-private or semi-public golf course?

I hope a developer bids, AND BUYS the parcel. I love the ‘holier than thou’ attitude of many of the residents. Now that you are living there, you feel that the entire town should remain unchanged. In an effort to be fair, as yourselves this:
How long have you lived in an area that would be affected by the sale? How old is your home? Has your family always lived in that home? What if this came up before YOUR neighborhood was built, or before you bought? Why do you want to deprive others?

Furthermore, unless you live adjacent to the location, it is not really fair that you pontificate about how much YOU will be affected.

Town and localaties are struggling. An infusion of cash is needed. Are you willing to all collectively ‘split the difference': in other words, if this new parcel would generate 1 million dollars of tax revenue over the next ten years, would all of the current residents find the generosity to split that million dollars themselves, and pay for it in terms of tax increases?

Lets face it: Things cost more now than they did a few years ago – yet we All expect the same (if not better) services. The cost has to be burdened somewhere.

@Mob and TO,
What about the argument, as made by Town Supervisor Messina today, that single-family homes actually increase the tax burden faced by existing residents, because the new residents need services and will send children to schools?

Messina was arguing that the town faces a double whammy here: Lost tax revenue from the private golf course, and increased costs if the town is developed into single-family homes.

Miss Piggy – the issue that concerns me as a resident with your statement is that use of “semi-private or semi-public”. Sounds like and oxymoron.. In either case , I believe the suggestion states that residents asssume a higher tax percentage for the debt of the Town owning this property and then pay into it again as a member to use it?!
Wow, what a deal for us! Don’t we already do that at Elm Ave Park? Why do we need another?
I would agree with your statements about what has occured at Glenmont 100%, but that is not a good example of responsible development. Ultimately something will need to be done with the land as we can’t afford to maintain 269 acres of new park. So how does the Town manage that with the sale and ultimately a rezoning request..

I would not be against commercial development in that space, for the record. I may be mistaken, but it seems that folks want NO DEVELOPMENT, and if some development is to happen, they prefer RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT. The town really squashed a good opportunity at the itnersection of 85 and 85a.

As for Messina’s comments – I would love to see where the proof lies. It is easy to ‘guess’ that it would cost the town more than it would make – but this comment is short-sighted and speculative. Where is the proof?

I support commercial development in the location, or even a mix of commercial and residential. Lets face it, unless we all want our taxes to go up measurably, we either have to accept a huge cut in services, or increase the money coming in. Where do we want to make the sacrifices???

Residential development is a net tax loss and commercial development is a net gain according to dem town management philosophy. The town has a golf course and hasnt even finished the Simmons park that we have down by the river, that we paid to have designed. Let the property stay in the private sector and on the taxrolls. It is protected from development by zoning, you cant ask for more. We havent got the rails to trail project done yet, that seems like a better waste of money, at least more people will have access.

I would love for someone (private or the town) to buy the course, and make it a public course. The town did a great job cleaning up colonial acres to make it worth the money, but having a full length course would be amazing. Also, the town could tie-in several youth programs for game improvement + employment for the kids.
I have my fingers crossed with this 1…

It’s too bad that all the folks who “so valued” Normanside didn’t actually take out a membership to support the club. It was a terrific asset to the neighborhood but apparently no one wanted to pay for it.

There’s no way the town could or should make a decision by then (16 days away) to bid on it, even if it did make sense for the town to own 269 acres (which it does not).

If you’re a residential real estate developer, are you going to bid knowing the political mess (just read this blog) you’d be getting into? That would be incredibly speculative.

Commercial development? Who is going to something commercial in a location that has no access and the same issues as residential development?

The only people who could be expected to bid on the land by February 23 are golf course operators. They are the only ones who would have reasonable expectations of winning the auction and using it for their desired purpose (i.e., the same one as the current previous owners).

A local group to buy it and run it as a golf course? That would be nice. There are though national companies (not so nice) that buy up floundering courses (there are many) and try to run them, or more gradually re-purpose them.

13:
Since when have single family homes lowered your taxes?
Property that does not send kids to schools (commercial) may (may) lower your taxes. A privately run public golf course, or a publicly owned gold course (see Albany and Guilderland) would be ideal. That area can not handle traffic of single family homes..that being said, see what happened, or did not happen to “McCormacks Hollow” (off North St.). No one wants, or can borrow enough for, large expensive homes.

whatever happens to the property, it should NOT become government owned. If all of you want it to remain as is, i suggest YOU secure the funding and try to run it as is. It didnt survive as a country club before, can YOU make it operate and survive? Taxpayer money should not be used to rescue another failed golf course, or any other venture where private investment should be used.

Jennings just finished complaining how Albany is 60% tax excempt. How long has he been Mayor? Their current golf course was built around the original,I’m sure they could bring back nine holes and spare everybody some back room political deals. The course is in Bethlehem it should be theirs or somebody else’s not Albany’s. I heard a dollar a day lease. That seems right.Come on man!

Rich, very rich. So tonight the Bethlehem School district
graples with the prospects of closing an elementary school, increasing class size, laying off teachers and eliminating sports programs. All of which, probably doesn’t close a 5 million dollar budget shortfall. So sure, the town should definetely be thinking about buying a golf course.